The Magic Portal
by KibaElunal
Summary: Five heroes who have made a name for themselves in Runeterra: Kal, Thane, Yil, Brett, and Arcturus have all received a mysterious letter summoning them to the mysterious temple within the Shurima desert. Who could have sent this mysterious letter, and what is it they wanted with all five of them?


The Magic Portal

One day Kal, Thane, Arcturus, Yildizlar, and Brett all received a mysterious letter in the mail, requesting that they all meet in a special location…a place that Kal was all too familiar with. Over time all five progressed through their own various means alone to the temple where Kal had met Kassadin and learned of the rings for the first time. No sooner had all five reached the temple that they began to talk with one another, sharing their life stories and the adventures they had had. And each one of them soon came to agree on one peculiar thing…that each of their stories seemed to be in a sense…convenient. How was it that something that threatened large amounts of people were stopped by each of the ordinary members of this group, despite the odds being stacked against them? As the five of them began to debate this, a violet portal opened, swirling wildly and exposing them to a strange figure that emerged from its depths.

Kal immediately reached for his blade which he kept at his hip, Thane in turn reaching for his knives as Arcturus and Yil summoned their weapons to their person, and Brett raised his scepter, ready to cast away. However, each of them soon found their weapons to turn into sand pouring through their fingers and being absorbed into the portal as if they had never existed in the first place.

"Who…who are you?!" Kal demanded of the figure his hands becoming cloaked in green flames. Thane stepped forward taking on a fighting stance before lashing out with a vicious kick towards the figure.

"You may have taken our weapons away but you should know that I still don't go down easily." However the man simply raised his hand blocking the kick as though it were nothing. Thane quickly launched into a flurry of punches and kicks, the strange man dodging and avoiding every single one of them as though he knew where they were coming from before even Thane knew.

Arcturus blasted away with his eldritch might while Brett hurled balls of infused energy at the man, but none seemed to be able to even land so much as a blow upon the man. Finally just as they were about to strike simultaneously at the man Yildizlar leapt between them causing the four to come to a screeching halt. "Wait! Can't you see this man means us no harm? He has yet to even raise a hand against us though he very obviously could defeat each of us if he really wanted to." Turning back to the man Yildizlar looked at him with a frown. "We will not attack you. Now if you please, tell us who you are, and why is it that we have been summoned here?" The hooded figure pulled back his hood with a sigh revealing gray-blue eyes and short brown hair. He was tall at least six and a half feet and while the robes did well to cover him it could be seen that he was just a typical human, no older than twenty two.

"Before I reveal to you who I am." He said softly, "I wish to tell you all a story." The five looked at one another confused.

"I'm sorry?"

"I wish to tell you the story of a young boy." Clearing his throat each of them fell silent curiously waiting for the strange man to begin. "Long ago, there was a young boy born to two very normal parents. He wanted to be one thing more than anything else in the world…like many young boys around him he wanted to be a hero. But he was different from other children his age. For him being a hero wasn't about being the strongest or the best…it was about being a good person who was true and just. But as time went on and the small boy began to grow what his friends, mentors, parents, and colleagues had once worked to teach and push upon him: the ideals of chivalry, compassion, and love, now became a reason to mock him."

Kal frowned. "Why would they mock that? Aren't those good things to dedicate one's self to?" The mysterious man turned to Kal and nodded.

"Here perhaps, yes. But where the little boy came from is a very different place from Runeterra. When the boy turned about twelve years old people around him began to scold him for his fantasies and daydreams of romance and adventure. 'Life is not a fairy tale' they told him, 'heroes do not exist in the real world.' But the boy simply nodded his head and continued living the way he had before. Many times his parents were spoken to about this. His teachers, his counselors, even his priest pushed his parents to speak with their son and end what they felt was foolishness."

Yil angrily slammed his fist against the wall. "That's terrible! How could they just stand by and try to shatter their child's dreams like that?"

"Calm yourself Yildizlar, the child's dreams were not so easily broken." The man stepped to the side and gestured towards the portal causing the five to take a closer look. A small child was crying on the playground as a group of kids threw sand and rocks at him. They laughed and taunted him, calling him a cry baby over and over again when suddenly another boy showed up.

"Leave him alone!" He cried angrily as he went to the young boy crying and helped him to his feet.

"Oh look, the baby has a boyfriend who's come to rescue him."

"I said leave him alone! If you want to pick on someone why don't you try picking on me, I guarantee you that you'll back down because I'm not scared to help someone who needs it." The small boy who had been crying earlier hid behind the slightly bigger one as the leader of the bullies came close.

"Ha! Yeah right, if you're so tough, why don't you hit me huh? I'll even let you take a free shot." The boy who had come to the child's rescue clenched his fist tightly shaking with anger. "See? I knew it. You're just a big chicken."

The boy smiled for a moment. "No…it's not that. My father just taught me never to hit a girl." The other bullies laughed much to their leader's embarrassment and in anger the bully lashed out towards the would-be rescuer. But what the bully didn't know was that the child he thought would be an easy target had read many books on martial arts and had even taken lessons. Grabbing the bully's wrist the child easily threw him on the ground just as a teacher came running up to break up the fight.

"Hey you two! Break it up! That's enough." The boy who had been bullying the other kid sniffled and looked to the teacher pointing to the one who had thrown him down.

"Teacher he threw me on the ground." The teacher looked down at the small boy angrily.

"Is this true?"

"Well…yeah but he tried to hit me! He started it!" The teacher grabbed the boy by the wrist and began pulling him towards the principal's office.

"I don't care who started it. You shouldn't ever put your hands on someone else."

"But he was picking on Jon, I had to stop him."

"You should have come and got a teacher."

"If I had they would have picked on Jon even more!" The boy protested but the teacher was done listening. Dragging him away to be punished the boy looked back to see that Jon was watching him leave before giving him a friendly wave to say thank you. That made things worth the trouble he was about to get in.

The boy sat in the small leather chair in the principal's office as the intimidating man looked at him from over the desk. "So…you started a fight?"

"I didn't start the fight! I just defended myself because he tried to punch me!"

"You know the rules of the school don't you Josh? You're supposed to go and tell a teacher if someone picks a fight. If you fight back you're just going to get in more trouble."

"But why? That's so stupid! He was hurting my friend and so I told him to stop and when he tried to hit me I threw him down! I know what I did was right! That's what a good guy would do." The principle frowned at this.

"Josh, this is the third time this semester. We've talked about this. Real life is not the same as on TV. You are not batman or superman, you're not a 'good guy' and the boy you attacked is not a 'bad guy'. You are going to have to learn to grow up young man or else you're going to keep getting into a lot of trouble. Now I'm going to give you in school suspension and I'm calling your parents. Go back to class." As Josh left the principal's office he felt like he was going to cry. Why couldn't things be like TV? Why couldn't he be like superman or batman and stick up for people who didn't do anything? As he walked down the hall scuffing his shoe on the linoleum floor the image blurred returning to its spiraling purple hue.

"What the hell was that?!" Thane growled. "Whenever I was a kid if someone tried to hit us we could at least fight back without getting in trouble. The teachers then were at least smart enough to be able to peg out which kid had started the fight and punish the right one when they broke up the fight." Arcturus put his hand on Thane's shoulder.

"Easy. Violence isn't the solution to everything, sometimes talking is the best course of action." Thane crossed his arms.

"Maybe for wherever the hell you came from, but in Zaun talking didn't always get things done. Sometimes you had to show someone that you weren't willing to just take it like everyone else was. You had to show the bullies you weren't scared of them." The man nodded.

"That is an excellent point, both of you." The man said before gesturing to the portal again. "But that is not the end of what I wanted you to see. There are many moments in this young man's life that influenced him to become what he is today, and you'll see soon that he needs your help. Now more than ever." As the image began to come into view the boy now at least thirteen years old sat on a couch next to his mother, a man with a pad and pen was talking to them both.

"So tell me Josh…are you angry with your mother?" The boy shot his mother a look that caused her to frown. Just as the boy was about to speak she interrupted.

"Yes, he has made it very clear that he blames me for the divorce between his father and I." Josh's blue eyes flared angrily as he turned to her.

"Yeah I do! Because you are to blame!" he yelled before leaning back against the couch.

"Why do you say that Josh?" The psychologist asked.

"Because she's the one who left him! He loved her and she left him for someone else."

"Josh…" the mom began.

"And what's worse is that she left my dad for some stupid guy who hits me and yells at me just because I like to joke around a lot."

"Joke around how Josh?"

"Like…I don't know…like just laughing at stupid stuff. Like once we were watching a movie and I really liked this funny part so I wanted to watch it again but he hit me and took the remote."

"Why do you think he hit you?"

His mom rolled her eyes. "He didn't hit you Josh, he swatted you with a broom and it was because you were sitting on the couch when he told you that he was cleaning."

"Yeah! But he didn't have to call me a son of a bitch and hit me with a broom! That's still hitting mom! Atleast Dad never hit me."

"Josh I didn't love your Dad anymore."

"Then how come you promised me that you did mom? I asked you not even a week before then if you loved daddy enough to never leave him and you promised you did. You lied to me mom!" The woman began to cry.

"Josh I told you that because I wasn't ready for your Dad to know yet."

"But you were ready enough to cheat on him!" The boy yelled again before getting up angrily and walking to another chair on a different side of the room.

"Josh…don't you think you're being unfair to your Mother? I mean, sometimes people just aren't meant to be together." The therapist asked.

"Yeah? Well the other guy I guess wasn't 'meant to be together' with his wife either. And now he dumped mom because she was wanting to get married after having only been divorced from dad for a month!"

"Joshua!"

"You know its true Mom! You even told me so last week!" The therapist held up his hands to stop the argument between the two.

"Josh, Mom…I fear our time is up. Josh…I want you to try to empathize with your mother do you know what that means? It means you should try to look at things from her point of view. Maybe then you'll see that you're being a little unfair to her." The portal swirled once more revealing the two driving home in a car.

"Josh…I know you're still angry…but Alan is a good man. He and his son Brian are lots of fun. You like playing with Brian."

"I did when Alan was just your friend and not the guy who made you leave Dad." I muttered. "And I did before Alan started hitting me with brooms and calling me a son of a bitch."

"Josh…you need to learn to read other people's feelings. I know you didn't think you were doing anything wrong by sitting on the couch. But Alan had a really long day and he didn't want to come home and clean with you sitting there laughing at the TV." The portal faded once more as the man turned back to the five waiting for their response. All of them were in shock.

"He…he hit the kid?"

"Yes. Never anything hard enough to hurt him mind you."

"That doesn't matter!" Kal said. "I'd rather die than hit any of my children. That's not what a father is supposed to do. A father is supposed to protect his children not give them a reason to need protection."

The man nodded in agreement before turning back to the portal once more. "Watch carefully you five. This is where things begin to get interesting." They silently turned back to the swirling image as the boy reappeared now in High School dressed in a military uniform and standing in formation.

"He…he joined the military? Good on him." Arcturus commented before the man shook his head.

"Not the military, the Junior ROTC or Recommended Officer Training Corps. And keep watching, this is not as good of a thing as you'd think." Once the inspection was done Josh turned back and walked towards the room. His step brother Michael had joined the Air Force last year and having been a member of the same JROTC unit everyone was expecting a lot from him.

"So Roberts, get any mail from your brother?" The instructor asked.

"No sir. He doesn't talk to me much." As he said this another student passed by and heard this before stopping.

"Oh?"

"He and I don't really get along sir." Josh whispered softly. He and his step brother were two completely different people. Josh was a free spirit. He spent most of his time writing stories or playing dating sims on Newgrounds at that time. He had always loved the idea of romance and even though these games were incredibly silly it was still something that he felt would give him at least something of a taste of romance, seeing as how no girl in school was interested in him. The last time he had worked up the courage to ask a girl out to homecoming she ended up leaving with his stepbrother. Another reason the two of them didn't get along.

"Do you know why that is?" The student who had stopped asked. Turning to the boy named Caesar who had joined the conversation Josh tilted his head to the side curiously.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said, do you know why your brother doesn't talk to you much" the boy repeated with a smirk. "Want me to tell you why?" The sergeant who was the teacher in the classroom laughed.

"Careful Roberts, he'll actually tell you." Josh narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist tightly.

"Go ahead…tell me why…I dare you." He growled angrily. This wasn't the first time another member of the corps picked on him. It seemed to be getting more and more frequent lately the more Josh tried to avoid trouble by just ignoring it.

"It's because no one cares about you at all. No one gives a crap whether or not you come to school or just disappear. If you were to die no one would even care or notice you were gone. In fact I bet some people in the corps just wish you would leave." The boy said causing Josh to want to hit him square in the jaw. It would be so easy, just one good punch to the face would send this fat son of a bitch to the ground and in to dream land. But he couldn't lash out, not because of an insult.

The boys words caused the sergeant to laugh out loud. "Oh man Roberts, he's really got you pegged." The sergeant and the other boy turned around and went back into the class room leaving Roberts to stand there before turning around and punching the wall hard. It had really hurt his hand, but truthfully he didn't notice the pain. He had to get the aggression out somehow. His mother had canceled his martial arts classes so she could pay for his sister's much more expensive ballet lessons and without a place to channel that anger he couldn't do anything but pent it up and explode when it became too much.

"Now hold up, hold up." Thane said stepping forward. "You don't honestly expect me to believe this do you? I mean what kind of teacher lets a kid say something like that and just lets it go? I mean what if he had gone home and killed himself because of that stupid kid?" Thane paused. "Oh man, we're not going to have to stop him from committing suicide are we?"

The man shook his head. "It happens more often than you'd like to think. Especially for someone like Josh who tries his best to help people who need it. As for the suicide…no. Josh has reached a point where he's stopped seeing life like he used to, where everyone is a potential friend. Now it was him versus the world and if he killed himself…well that would be just letting the world win." The five of them continued to watch as Josh made his way home. He had purposely decided not to take the bus home. It was an hour and a half long walk but the longer it took him to get home the better. Then he wouldn't have to deal with his new stepfather Wayne. He was still angry about that. His mom hadn't been dating the guy for a month before they got married and when he came in to the picture he became another drill sergeant to yell at him. The only reasoned he'd joined the ROTC in the first place was because of his heart condition that prevented him from taking P.E. He couldn't care less about soldiers or the military. He respected the people who chose to do it, but he felt he had more important things to do here than he did fighting a political battle in a far off country.

Pushing open the door to his house he sighed softly. His parents wouldn't be home for another three hours, so for now it was just him and his little sister Nicole. "Josh!" she cried. "Mom said she wants you to clean the living room and mow the lawn." As she said this Josh looked closely at the post it note on the fridge. It was addressed to his sister and it said exactly what he suspected: that those were her chores and she just wanted to get out of doing them.

"Nice try Nicole. Do it yourself." He called back before walking up stairs and closing the room behind him. Turning on his computer he booted up his chat room eager to get back to the roleplay he had joined earlier that month. It seemed to be the only time he got to actually live the way he wanted. Soon however his sister barged into his room without knocking. It was something that really irritated him.

"Mom wants to talk to you." She said in a mocking sing-song voice. Handing the phone to him he put it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Josh! Why won't you do what your sister asked?"

"Because she's trying to make me to do the things you told her to do."

"Oh my God Josh. You're supposed to be the mature one. You're older than her by four years. Just go out and do it and quit causing problems."

"But mom! That's not fair!"

"Life isn't fair Josh. Just do it or you lose internet for a week." The line clicked as his mother hang up and angrily he threw the phone at his sister who stuck out her tongue at him as he walked by to do what his mother had told him to. This was his life, this was the way things were. That night just as he was about to get online his mother returned home and opened his door, also without knocking.

"Mom…some privacy?" He asked politely.

"You don't need privacy unless you're doing something you're not supposed to be." She retorted. "Anyway there is something you should know: Wayne and I have talked about it and we'll be moving at the end of this year." Josh looked up quickly from his computer.

"What? Why?"

"Well we found this place in the forest in Montgomery near your grandparents. We've always wanted to live out in nature and so we're moving."

"But mom, next year is my last year of high school. Are you seriously going to force me to move from all of my friends for one year before I go to college?"

"Josh you only have like three friends. Besides you'll make more friends there. We're moving. End of story. Besides you'll be going to school with Marisa."

Josh frowned angrily. "Mom, how many times do I have to ask you not to bring her up?"

"Look Josh just because she dumped you doesn't mean…"

"No Mom that's exactly what it means. She dumped me and told me that I was annoying and that I'd turned her off of men for good. After her and I'd been best friends for six years, you think that breaking up with me she would be just a tad bit more gentle."

"Josh get over it. If you don't want to talk to the one person you know there then fine. Don't complain when you don't have any friends just because you can't get over a stupid break up." She left the room shutting the door behind her and leaving him to sit in silence.

Kal looked at the man suspiciously. "Alright…I'll bite. Who is this guy? What does he have to do with us?"

"Well to put it simply Kal, this man is in a sense…well your creator."

"What do you mean?"

"Listen to me…all of you. This world that you live in: Runeterra. It doesn't exist. It isn't real. It is just a figment of imagination used to make a story. When Josh became older he found himself in a bad place…and he began writing stories. First with you Kal, then Thane, then Yil, then Brett, then Arcturus."

Yildizlar's eyes went wide. "It's you! You're the kid from the portal!" Josh smiled at Yil.

"Guilty as charged."

"But…why are you here? What does this have to do with anything?"

Josh sighed softly before speaking. "Look…ever since I was a kid, as you've seen, I've wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Good guy, protagonist, knight-in-shining-armor, what have you. But unfortunately for me, those things don't exist in the world I live in. What you saw in that portal, that's just the tip of the iceberg in my world. Every day someone else tells me how stupid, childish, or naïve I am to think I can change the world."

"How is that stupid? You just want to be a hero. So what?"

"Like I said, heroes do not exist in my world Brett. They are like each of you, characters in a made up story for the purpose of entertaining other people. But you know what I say why can't they be real? Why is it that we can't be heroes? I don't care what anyone says, I was born to protect people and that's what I want to do, no matter how stupid it may sound to someone else." Josh sighed softly. ". I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to be a knight in shining armor that could travel the world protecting the weak and innocent and vanquishing the evil and malicious. I wanted to go on adventures and rescue princesses and slay evil dragons. But then…" he continued, "I began to grow older…every day when I'd push for ideals like chivalry and justice and honor I was met with an overwhelming…I don't know…criticism? People would tell me that I'm naïve and childish. Those older than myself would scold my ideals telling me that the world didn't work that way and that in real life things were bad and would always be bad and there is nothing I could do about it. To tell the truth…to this day it still hurts." He placed his hand over his chest. "I feel like there is a hole there that can never be filled no matter how much I try to stuff into it. I don't know how to explain it but…I was born for this. I was born to be a hero and to protect people from the evils of the world. The world I live in…the world I want to live in…it's a world that people call make-believe and every day I wake up wishing that I could just fall back to sleep forever and live within my dreams. I want to feel that thrill, the excitement of adventure, the tenderness of romance. I want to feel like my actions and feelings mean something to this world and every time I wake up and look around I'm reminded of the cold harsh reality that that was forced upon me since I was a child. There are no heroes, there are no knights in shining armor, no damsels in distress, if anything all there is and all there will ever be are selfish ignorant hollow shells that shamble around pretending that they know what's best and what's most important! But they're wrong. They're all wrong! What's important is believing in something bigger than yourself. Believing that when it comes down to it every single one of us can make a difference if we just try!" He looked so sad, his eyes were filling up with tears as he sat on the ground. "What's wrong with the way I am? What's wrong with looking at the world and wanting to believe that I can be enough of a part of it that I can change it for the better? Everything has to be looked at and taken at face value for what it is instead of what it could be and I hate every damned second of it!"

The five of them remained silent as they looked towards the man.

"I understand your frustration…but why did you bring us here?" Arcturus asked.

"The reason I wrote all of you…the reason I made the stories I did is because I wanted to at least feel as though I could live in a world where heroes existed. That's why I made the five of you. In some way you each contain a piece of me and in a way I'm each one of you all blended together. The reason I brought you here? It's because I'm lonely. Sure I have friends outside in the real world…but they could never understand what it feels like to be me."

"Are you sure about that?" Yil asked.

"Yes. I am. I've tried to explain to them, tried to make them understand why these stories are so important to me…" he turned towards Kal with a slight chuckle. "Did you know that out of all of my close friends, not one of them has made it half way through your adventure with Ahri? Yeah, that's right. My very first story and they aren't even half way through it much less even started on the other four stories that involve you guys. The truth is…I envy you. Each and every one of you. I wish that I could lead the life I write out for you guys. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to live like the five of you do danger and all."

Kal frowned and walked up to the man on the floor. "Look Josh…I'm sorry about that…I really am. But what do you expect us to do? We can't exactly just pull you from your reality." Josh looked up to him with a nod.

"I know. Believe me, I understand the difference between reality and fiction. Mom worried for a long time that I may have been going insane…in truth I just find the real world so unbelievably boring. So when I write about the five of you…I'm not just making a story for other people to read…I'm living the life I want to live…the one I consider my real life." Josh frowned as he looked back down at the ground the various images and shapes fading around him and leaving him deposited in his room all alone. On his monitor was an open window of Microsoft Word and his account. This was what he had left, this was the one way he felt he could force meaning into his slow dull boring life. Having awoken from his daydream Josh looked down at his clock to see how early in the morning it was and gave a soft sigh. He'd have to go through another day of hell once more. He knew what would entail: his mother's lectures, his stepfather's joy of tormenting him, the crushing loneliness that came from being over an hour away from his nearest friend. But somewhere inside of him was a small light that flickered in his heart that contained the small hope and excitement that would grow bigger when he returned back home.

That light was every wish, dream, and story he'd ever wanted and would ever want and he knew that when he got back later that night he'd find the one thing he craved more than anything. When he finished writing that chapter, when he published it and waited patiently for the reviews to come rolling in, even if it was just one or two, he would know that for once he was able to live in the world he so desperately desired. Eventually…one day, maybe he'd be able to live in it forever.


End file.
